– HEATH HERRING RE-EVALUATING CAREER

by Damon Martin – MMAWeekly.com
In his last fight for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Heath Herring had Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira closer to a knockout loss than he has ever faced. But after recovering and controlling the remainder of the fight, the former Pride champion defeated Herring for the third time in as many meetings.

Herring then decided to take some much-needed time off.

During 2007, he fought three times in the span of seven months. After the Nogueira fight, he decided to refocus and reevaluate his current training situation as well as spend time with his family through the holidays.

While his downtime has also included training, Herring will also sharpen his commentating skills early in December as he works for Platinum Fighting Productions calling the action for its first event, which is taking place overseas.

“I’ve just been taking some time off, hanging out with the family a little bit and actually flying out to the Philippines. I’m commentating out there at this fight in Manila in December,” he said to MMAWeekly.com. “There’s a lot of good fighters on that card, which should actually be a pretty good event.”

The card will feature teams coached by Josh Barnett and Gokar Chivichyan.

Because of the busy schedule Herring faced for the first part of the year, the former Pride stand-out spoke about the importance of having time off after being extremely busy to start 2007.

“For a lot of fighters, especially the newer guys who are new to the sport, that occurs a lot actually,” said Herring about training and fighting too much. “They train sometimes up to six times a week, and they’re just not getting that down time, that rest that their bodies really, really need.”

Herring has been working on finding a new full-time home for his training camps and it seems like the Texan has now made that call.

“I’m actually in the process of that right now,” he said about his new training camp. “I’m training a lot at Couture’s, Xtreme Couture’s gym, working with a lot of those guys down there and it’s seeming to be a pretty good fit. I think that I found a new home and I’m dealing with Marc Laimon’s over there for the ground fighting and all that. I think I’m starting to get a camp put together right now.”

After his time in the Philippines, Herring said he would return home to his new team and start focusing on 2008. He hopes to return by March or April and work his way back to the top of the heavyweight division.